With four talers and 16 groschen in the collection box, theologian August Hermann Francke set about founding a ‘school city’ in 1698. Its era-defining reforms reflected Lutheran ideas and were taken across Europe as far as India and North America by Francke’s students. Up to 3,000 people lived and worked at the ‘school city’ in its heyday, and it was heralded by Francke’s contemporaries as the ‘New Jerusalem’. The Francke Foundations are still a vibrant promoter of education today, with museums, schools and institutes. The impressive ensemble is on UNESCO’s Tentative List of properties considered for World Heritage nomination. It includes the Historical Orphanage, Europe’s longest half-timbered building, the oldest civic museum room and an early modern library with stage-set shelving.